Styles Of Hell

After talking to Phil today about the approach I should give my transcription project, we agreed, that a large part of that journey should be finding the style of hell I wish to portray. Deep down I have an image in my head, but I want to break away from that, and start again, looking at other styles perhaps even fusing and blending different ones.

Hell became most well known during the Medieval period. It was originally used as a way to con people out of their money (although this isn't the time or place for my religious musings), however, as a concept, became very 'painted' and the image we have of hell today, although very different, started there.

As you can see in this piece by Italian painter; Fra Angelico, Hell was originally depicted as a dark cave like environment. The idea of a modern 'red firey Hell' is somewhat of a new one, and one we will move onto in time.

This image by Marcovaldo, Is somewhat similar in style, almost rudimentary in terms of shape and very reliant on mark making to establish it as a piece. Despite this, There were renaissance painters who approached 'Hell' in a different style to the two above artists.

This piece is based on the poem 'Divine comedy' and was drawn around the same era as the other two. This still has a similar feeling, dark - no loud fires, yet seems incredibly more something I would be inclined to look at when finding my style for this piece.

If I'm being honest, I will probably working more towards a 'modern Hell' but this background research is pivotal to stop me from re-hashing ideas and making cliché's.

If we look at the jump form Medieval to now, Hell can be seen two ways - A joke, or a gruesome Gothic underworld.

I hope find more visual reference like the above, as it is clear form one look - This is Hell. I want to give my Hell a purpose so to speak. No random mountain-esque models, everything should be there for a reason.

This is only a brief post, and I'll be looking into my chosen style a lot more in the coming days. Concept art will be a key factor in making my Hell be a relative environment. yay! not. Although I did learn form my narrative project, strong concept art makes modelling and the rest of the cg task a lot easier in the long run.